Pawlenty: If The Obama Presidency Was A Lady Gaga Song...

Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN), who is exploring a run for president, has also been exploring something else: awkward pop culture references, in a speech this past weekend to the Iowa Federation of College Republicans.

"I think what the younger voters have figured out is that this is a broken relationship. He made soaring promises and grand expectations. He's broken those promises," he told the crowd of students. "If this was a Lady Gaga song, the relationship between the youth vote and Barack Obama would be 'Bad Romance.'"

Pawlenty, Minnesota's most recent former governor and a potential future presidential hopeful, said the news of the day has been dominated by the tragedy in Japan, issues in the Middle East, and Charlie Sheen.

"We may not in this room have tiger blood like he does," Pawlenty said, referring to the television actor, "but we've got something else in common with him. There's going to be a lot of winning on the Republican side in 2012."